A Change for the Better

We finally switched the main lights in the new house over to energy saving compact fluro's yesterday. After taking two months to get around to it, it only took a few minutes to actually do it (the biggest problem was remembering to check what type of light fitting we had before going out!) We've switched over the three lights in the living area, the two in DD's playroom, and the bathroom light, since these are the ones we use most often. The bedrooms, toilet and walk in wardrobe came with compact fluro's, so they are fine. We still need to switch over the hallway, laundry, and outside lights, but these are only used infrequently and for short periods of time, so they can wait a little while.

The compact fluros are much cheaper to run, especially over a long period of time. These that we bought are 15 watt, but with the light of a 75 watt, making them brighter than the existing 60 watt lights, for 1/4 of the energy. I'm sure we'll notice the savings on our next bill. Although you would think that changing lightbulbs over wouldn't make that much difference, we did actually notice the savings when we changed the ones in our unit over several years ago now. DH also prefers the white light over the yellow, and I have to agree with him, especially in the sewing room. For those that prefer the yellow light though, you can get yellow compact fluro's now. We have them in the other rooms in the house, and you can definately see the colour difference.

Low-tech Wednesday

A member on Aussies Living Simply mentioned that they were having a 'low-tech Wednesday', where they tried to get through the day with as little use of technology as they could, and I was inspired. I know I tend to get too involved on the computer, and DD watches a bit much TV some days, so I thought a day without could be nothing but good.

It wasn't easy, I have to admit, but in the end, it turned out to be a good day. DD had a few tantrums in the morning about wanting to watch a DVD or play a computer game (not that she would normally do them at that time, but when I said we weren't going to, it immediately became the first thing she wanted to do of course), but she settled down quite well.

It helped that Wednesday is story time at the library, so that took up a large chunk of the day. They had an Easter story, made some bunny ears, and were given an Easter egg, which she really enjoyed. Then we choose some books, and a big set of wooden dominoes, and headed home. We spent a lot of the day reading our new library books (at times when DD needed some restful activities and would normally have watched TV), cleaned the floor (DD loves scrubbing the floor!),

We took the chickens out onto the lawn to run around, and watched them excitedly flapping their wings (they are getting feathers on their wings already! Slow down chicks, you can be cute and fluffy for a bit longer!), and pecking at the grass. We played in the cubby, where DD is loving doing pretend cooking on her toy stove. We planted some seeds (peas and pansies), and watered them. And picked the few ripe tomatoes that were there.

For dinner, we had a barbeque with sausages, and tried cooking some vegies wrapped in alfoil in the fire. Most of them burnt to a crisp, but the couple of potatoes that survived were delicious. DD had an early night, and DH and I stayed up far too late talking, without watching TV or playing the computer! DH enjoyed putting some food on his hand, and sitting with it in the box with the chickens as they climbed all over it and pecked it out of his hands. He is allergic to most animals, thus hasn't been able to have pets, and is really enjoying the experience.

All in all, I think low-tech Wednesday was a great success, and we're thinking of making it a regular event!

Our Computer has been down!

Saturday afternoon, a tree went down up the street, and must have sparked the power, and set all our safety switches off. No storm, not even that much wind, so not quite sure why, but it just fell down! Once our power was back on, we discovered that our modem was dead, no power at all. And DH's computer, which we are pretty sure wasn't even switched on, was dead too! Luckily his was just a power supply, which we've now replaced. Cost us $109, but at least it was nothing more serious. Our Internet company replaced the modem under warranty, and that arrived today. Turns out it was just the power supply there too, as I plugged in the new transformer, and it's working fine. So we're back online!

Stay tuned over the next few days for lots of pics and updates on all that has happened in the last few days, it sure has been busy!

Electricity hassles

Well, I've spent nearly all day with Energex (local electricity company) technicians here (well, OK, the were only here for about 3 hours all up, but it felt like all day!) going around trying to find out why the water in my sink, and the sink itself, is giving me tingles when I'm trying to wash up. All I have been able to discover is that yes, there is voltage there, but that they have no idea why. Apparently it isn't dangerous, and is in what they consider to be acceptable safety levels, but it is certainly affecting my ability to get my washing up done! It's only 2 or 3 volts, but apparently I'm very sensitive to it. Doesn't help that I have a cut on my finger, so that every time I put it in the water, it stings. Ugh. Anyway, they're coming back tomorrow to check the plugs on the power pole or something in case it is that. Hopefully it is. If not, I'll be out tomorrow to buy myself some rubber gloves for washing up!

On the plus side, I've learnt lots about electricity and how it works. I was trying to measure the current with a multimeter we bought, and wondering why it wasn't registering any voltage, when it was definitely there, I could feel it. Turns out that grounding it against the shed wall was useless, because there was current flowing through that too! Grounding it to the cement floor, or better yet, the dirt outside, gave a far more satisfactory result, and was in line with the readings they were getting. They had a very nifty little multimeter of course, which had a long line connected to a stake that they could stick in the ground outside, then walk around inside to test where they liked.

While they were back late tonight checking again because of our paranoia (we discovered in our measuring that there was low level voltage going through our gas cylinders), we ended up with hundreds of mozzies inside! So we spent a good half hour hunting them down throughout the house. Luckily, we sleep under mosquito nets, so we should still have a good night's sleep.